Macedonia Demands EU Accession Timetable

Macedonian FM Nikola Poposki

In the letter sent ahead of next month’s EU Council of Ministers, Poposki says his country deserves to receive a starting date for membership talks, which he says would also help efforts to overcome the dispute with Greece over the country's name.

"I believe this is a good opportunity that should not be missed," Foreign Minister Poposki wrote.
 
Despite repeated recommendations from the European Commission, the EU has for three years in a row declined to set a date for a start to accession talks, owing to a Greek blockade connected to the long-standing "name" issue.

Poposki argues that the practice of blocking his country's European progress is not working. He also says past examples have shown that other candidate countries have settled disputes with neighbours at the same time as conducting EU accession negotiations.

Macedonia has received some support for this view. In a statement for Germany's Deutsche Welle last week, the former Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said "name" negotiations running in tandem with EU accession talks would be “a good option”.
 
But he admitted that at the moment this looked practically impossible. “This is a problem, and will remain to be so as long as EU foreign policy matters are decided by consensus,” he said.

During the Italian presidency of the EU, then foreign minister Frattini was engaged himself in seeking a solution to the "name" dispute that would allow Macedonia to continue its EU accession.

Greece insists that use of the name "Macedonia" implies a territorial claim to its own northern province of the same name.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis in Greece has opushed the name dispute onto the back-burner as well as toppling the Socialist-led Greek government. The two countries have not held fresh talks under UN auspices on the topic of Macedonia's name for almost a year.